Flights carrying women linked to IS group land in Australia

Airliners carrying Australian women and children with alleged ties to the Islamic State group landed in Australia on Thursday.

A plane reportedly carrying three Australian women and eight children landed in Melbourne, while a separate plane carrying a woman and her son arrived in Sydney soon after. The Australian Government announced on Wednesday that the 13, who have spent years in a Syrian desert camp, planned to return to Australia.

Police said the women face potential criminal charges relating to their alleged time in the Islamic State group’s so-called caliphate that spanned Syria and Iraq.

Both Qatar Airways flights took off minutes apart from Doha, bound for Australia’s two largest cities. QR904, which landed in Melbourne first, was followed by QR908 in Sydney. The Australian Government had condemned the women for supporting Islamic State militants by traveling to Syria and had refused to help repatriate them. Police have been investigating for more than a decade Australians’ potential involvement in atrocities while in Syria.